Electronic commerce benefits the buyer with advantages on purchasing power. With online information abundant, buyers can easily locate sellers who offer the lowest price. Different websites various methods for promoting goods or services online, for example, bidding systems as with ebay.com, buyers naming their price as with priceline.com, the traditional store style where products are offered for set prices, the sellers naming their price through a third party stores as with amazon.com and conditional aggregation systems that group individual potential buyers to achieve low price under certain conditions.
The bidding system, as ebay.com, offers an auction channel for sellers. Today, small business owners are actively sellers, and they create multiple bidding items for sale online and accept the bid price at the end of auction for sale of the item. The traditional online store as amazon.com, offers competitive price to attract the buyers. The buyer naming price style as priceline.com offers an alternative way to buy goods and services. The order is taken when there is a seller that agrees with the buyer's price. The conditional aggregation style aggregates individual orders, and the contract is implemented when the condition is met.
The present system provides the style of hybrid—store style with aggregation capability. The bidding system, traditional store style and the buyer naming price style don't have the aggregation capability; the final aggregation price depends on the desirability. Though the auction system offers a Dutch auction variant to have multiple item sales, the price is not determined by aggregation purchasing but the desirability of product itself. Additionally, the bidder has to wait a long period until the auction is end.
The conditional aggregation style does offer the aggregation capability, but both participants to the sale uncertainty as to whether the sale will ever be completed. Only when condition is met is the deal fulfilled. The buyer, who is eager to receive the product, has to wait until the deal is expired or consummated before receiving the item because the deal won't complete until the minimum condition is met. Therefore, this method is less attractive despite the fact that a lower price for purchasing the item may be achieved. Additionally, dynamic market conditions could lower the price and attract buyers away from the deal. Buyers withdrawing from the order before consummation or expiration will inevitably happen, and the whole deal may be cancelled because due to order cancellation. This will leave the buyer without a product, and the seller without a sale. Seller will also have increased inventory cost. Therefore, this method of sales is undesirable.
The present invention takes the desirability and quantity into the consideration and provides a new method to aggregate individual sales to achieve a lower sale price for the buyer. The present invention provides a new channel for individual, small business owners and manufactures to sell directly to a consumer. It enables a seller to promote items at low prices and compensate with large sale volumes. Individual items are sold when a buyer orders. In other words, the sellers make the sale immediately when buyers place the order. Seller performs shipping and handling after the order is confirmed. Unlike auction or conditional aggregation style, Buyer does not need to wait until the meeting of a specified condition for the deal to end. Buyers also enjoy lower prices by aggregating the individual sales into group purchasing. Buyers prepay the retail price up front and later the system aggregates the sales and lower the prices. The differences between prepaid and the price after aggregation will be credited into the customer account. The system works like a traditional store with the additional feature of group aggregation. This creates win-win situation for the buyer and the seller.